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isure wish that i lived in a place like costa rica, right about now, right now the temperature outside is about -20, so i think even koi would have a hard time. the breeding pond for jack demseys would be great. good luck and i hope there is no flooding.

Renegade545,
king of the frontosa

Tilapia? In Costa Rica?

Tilapia are African. Prior to the Greenwood revision of the Cichlidae, they were all lumped together in the Genus Tilapia then Greenwood split the up - so now you have Sarotherodon among other Genrea containing the original Tilapia.

Here are the current members of the Genus Tilapia after the revision ...

Here are the current members of Sarotheordon, some of which were originally in Tilapia

The only Central American Cichlid that contains 'Tilapia' in its name is Herotilapia multispinosa, the Rainbow Cichlid. Here's the fish in question.

Oh, take note of the confusion between Herotilapia multispinosa and Archocentrus centrarchus that has taken place among American hobbyists in the past, though why they confused the two is somewhat beyond me when you see these pics:

Herotilapia multispinosa

Archocentrus centrarchus

Apart from anything else, Archocentrus centrarchus is a considerably more aggressive fish (not to mention a good deal larger) ...

Oh by the way, the Cichlid Room is a great place to chase up Cichlid information. Apart from the site creator, Juan Manuel Artigas Azas (whose knowledge of Mexican Cichlids is probably second to none) the site is regularly added to by experts such as Dr Paul Loiselle (professional ichthyologist as well as Cichlid breeder) and Pam Chin (whose Cichlid collection extends to 200 aquaria!).


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

tilapia are a delicious meal but yup they are bred here and exported to the US in tons.....

Duly noted. Tilapia seem to be introduced to our country, nontheless our waters are full of cichlids more commonly known as mojarras amongst others. Also an array of intresting freshwater fish populate our water bodies, check them out on this site: http://fish.mongabay.com/data/Costa_Rica.htm

If you are as curious as I am this will provide you with some intresting info and some nice pics of Costa Rica's freshwater inhabitants.

Enjoy

I stand corrected and correct myself. The fish I was thinking of all along is the Parachromis dovii, locally called Guapote, highly appreciatted for sportfishing and human consumption.